1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display, and more particularly, it relates to a display including a plurality of display panels.
2. Description of the Related Art
A portable display employed as the display panel of a portable telephone or the like is known in general. A folding portable telephone or the like including two display panels, i.e., a main panel and a sub panel, is also known in general.
FIGS. 23 and 24 are perspective views showing the folding portable telephone 400 including two liquid crystal display panels, i.e., a main panel 401 and a sub panel 402. Referring to FIGS. 23 and 24, the conventional folding portable telephone 400 is constituted of a display part 400a and an operation part 400b. The display part 400a includes the main panel 401 provided on the surface closer to the operation part 400b and the sub panel 402 provided on the surface opposite to the operation part 400b. When the portable telephone 400 is not used, the display part 400a is folded toward the operation part 400b as shown in FIG. 23. In this folded state, the sub panel 402 displays time information or the like. When the portable telephone 400 is used, the display part 400a is opened along arrow in FIG. 23 and brought into the state shown in FIG. 24. In this state, the main panel 401 displays a telephone number, a dynamic image or the like.
The housing of the aforementioned portable telephone 400 is inconveniently increased in size due to the main panel 401 and the sub panel 402 mounted thereon independently of each other. Therefore, the portable telephone 400 is hard to miniaturize.
In relation to a portable apparatus such as the portable telephone 400 including a main panel and a sub panel, therefore, there is proposed a technique of arranging the main panel and the sub panel above and under a backlight thereby sharing the backlight by the main panel and the sub panel. Thus, the housing of the portable apparatus can be miniaturized due to the shared backlight.
A liquid crystal display used for the portable apparatus must be further miniaturized in response to particularly strong requirement for miniaturization. In the aforementioned technique of sharing the backlight, however, the main panel and the sub panel themselves are mounted independently of each other, and hence miniaturization of the liquid crystal display is limited. Consequently, it is difficult to further miniaturize the liquid crystal display according to the aforementioned technique of sharing the backlight.
In the aforementioned technique of sharing the backlight, further, the main panel and the sub panel themselves are mounted independently of each other, and hence it is difficult to further reduce the number of components and further simplify assembling steps. Consequently, it is also difficult to further reduce the component cost as well as the device cost.